The first BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) resolutions were proposed in student governments in 2005-6, of the four introduced, two passed and two were defeated. Only five other resolutions were proposed in the following five academic years combined and three of those were defeated. The campaign began to take off in 2012-13 with 10 resolutions (six were defeated), followed by 19 in 2013-14 (12 were defeated) and 27 in 2014-15 (20 were defeated). Since that upsurge, the movement has shown signs of petering out.

A total of 130 BDS measures have been considered – 87 were defeated (66%).

Those votes were limited to a total of 68 schools, less than 2% of America’s 4,298 four-year colleges. (The California Community College Association is counted as one college and the UC Student Association, which has no power and represents no individual schools is excluded as were four graduate student programs).

A total of 38 schools have approved a BDS resolution in the last 14 years, which represents about 1% of universities.*

A total of 54 schools have rejected BDS (there is some overlap as some of these have adopted BDS in other years) .

A total of 29 schools had two or more votes; 9 schools had three or more (Ohio State, Berkeley, Davis, Riverside, UCSB, UCSD, UCSC, Michigan, Dearborn), and 6 schools had four (Michigan, Michigan Dearborn, UC Riverside, UCSD, UCSB, Ohio State). Most votes - 6 (UCSB [defeated every time], Michigan, Michigan-Dearborn).

Of the 68 schools that voted on BDS, 11 were ranked in the top 20 and 11 of 15 (73%) resolutions were defeated.

A total of 22 schools in the top 50 entertained BDS initiatives and 32 of 48 were defeated (67%). In 2019, Brown became the first Ivy League school to pass a divestment resolution.

Even the handful of divestment resolutions that were adopted by students have no authority and administrators have repeatedly made clear they have no intention of divesting from Israel. In fact, many of the same schools (e.g., UCI) dramatically increased cooperation with Israel after the votes. Overall, about 97% percent of American campuses have had no divestment votes and have little or no BDS activity.